Ecological habitus intergenerationally reproduced: The children of Czech ‘voluntary simplifiers’ and their lifestyle

Abstract

The intergenerational reproduction of values and lifestyles has been at the centre of attention for the social sciences for several decades. However, only rarely has this topic been examined from the perspective of environmentally friendly lifestyles. In this article, we build on unique longitudinal research that includes generations of parents and children from Czech ‘voluntarily simple’ families. Drawing on sociological theories of consumption and the Bourdieusian concept of habitus, we deal with the question of whether and how the intergenerational transmission of eco-habitus emerges. The original research with the parents – called ‘the Colourful’ – was conducted by the Czech sociologist Hana Librová in 1992, 2002 and 2015. We participated in the third wave, conducting 12 in-depth interviews with the Colourful and supplementing it with 21 interviews with their adult children, focusing on how they look back on their childhood and in what respect their lifestyles and attitudes differ from those of their parents. We describe the reproduction of the Colourful’s habitus and identify the main lines of influence that may play a role in this process: positive reflections on a non-affluent childhood, awareness of the values behind simplicity, a liberal model of upbringing, the higher cultural capital of the families, the family atmosphere, religiosity and diverse experiences among siblings related to their birth order. We show that while for the Colourful it was typical to revolt against parents, their own habitus has been reproduced relatively successfully.

Keywords

Voluntary simplicity sustainable consumption social reproduction intergenerational transmission of lifestyles ecological habitus longitudinal qualitative research Czech Republic

Pro-environmental lifestyles and their social reproduction in the Czech context

In June 1992, the Czechoslovak Minister of the Environment at the time, Josef Vavroušek, attended the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. It was not quite 3 years after the transition from state socialism in his country, and the young liberal democracy was at a crossroads of sorts; it was uncertain to what extent the country was going to embrace Western capitalism. Even though the former regime paradoxically – considering its discursive opposition to ‘Western capitalism’ – shifted its focus from ideology to mass consumption in the 1970s and 1980s (Možný, 1991), the level of Czech consumption was low in comparison with Western societies. Many saw this as an opportunity and speculated about the possibility of a ‘Third Way’ (Myant, 2003).

Affected by the summit’s atmosphere, Vavroušek approached the sociologist Hana Librová, inquiring whether in Czech society there was any chance for lifestyles usually referred to as ‘sustainable’, ‘non-affluent’ or ‘environmentally friendly’, to spread. Unlike authors relying on technological (Brand, 2009) or political (McKibben, 2011) solutions to environmental problems, Librová focused on the micro-level. She searched for answers to the moral dilemma of how to live with dignity at the time of an ecological crisis, and she tried to find people outside of the environmental movement that could serve as an example of the possibility to lower one’s demand for consumption while still enjoying a fulfilling life.

Librová found households from diverse social backgrounds and with various motivations (Librová, 1994). Therefore, she named them ‘the Colourful’. Despite their diversity, the Colourful had much in common:

Many of them (…) have given up a comfortable, secure professional position (… and) have moved to a dilapidated house in the countryside and have been renovating it. (…) Perhaps the most distinctive feature of their way of life is their openness toward others and their civic, and generally human, responsibility (… as well as) their self-limiting attitude of ecological luxury, as in, ‘one can’t have, and can’t experience, everything’. (Librová, 2003: 253)

The post-revolution ethos emanated from the interviews. The period right after 1989 was marked by optimism and it was favourable for making radical decisions. Formerly suppressed dimensions of social involvement were opening up – from the opportunity to run one’s own business to public engagement; people’s interest in environmental issues was also unusually high (CENIA, 2005). This specific temporal and geographical situation is important in the context of theoretical debates on voluntary simplicity. In post-socialist countries, Western researchers do not expect to find ‘the simplicity movement’, which they see as a particular reaction of (predominantly urban) Westerners against the (neo)liberal economic model (Alexander and Ussher, 2012; Elgin, 1981; Maniates, 2002). In contrast, participants in Librová’s research gave up on the chance to become more affluent at a time when Czech society was just starting to open itself to capitalism and when the society in general was eager to fulfil its consumer dreams; sociologist Ivo Možný (1991) saw the inability of the old regime to meet the consumption demands as one of the major reasons for its fall. The research participants could also lean on a noticeable tradition of resistance to socialist consumerism, expressed, for example, in the woodcraft movement (Jehlička and Kurtz, 2013).

Librová’s sample shared many characteristics with the ‘voluntary simplicity’ stream (Alexander and Ussher, 2012; Elgin, 1981; Grigsby, 2004) and we maintain the established label of ‘simplifiers’ in our study. However, her interviewees did not associate themselves with either the simplicity or the environmental movements. In contrast to typical Western simplifiers, they did not have a unifying ideology, were not politically radical and did not use ‘green cultural codes’ (Horton, 2003). Moreover, Librová’s research differed from most of the studies of voluntary simplicity in its method. It was not based on self-nomination; recommendations were received through informants, or ‘snowball sampling’.

Librová’s research evolved into a longitudinal project with subsequent waves in 2002 and 2015. In total, 12 households were interviewed in all three phases (Librová, 1994, 2003; Librová et al., 2016; in English, Librová, 1999, 2008). Over the decades, the theme of dissemination of environmental values gained a new dimension. The interviews began to turn towards one topic: How is a – in many ways demanding – lifestyle without material affluence perceived by children? Are they going to be positively inspired or are they going to take a critical stance? Despite some concerns, the parents expressed optimism that their children would be able to withstand the pressure of those peers who were knowledgeable about the latest TV series and were dressed in brand-name clothes. They hoped that as the children got older, they would come to appreciate the family lifestyle. However, there were signals that kept their hopes in check. For instance, there was the experience of communities in which descendants of the founding generation tended to lose interest in the radical lifestyle and turn towards consumerism (Jones, 2011). Optimism could not be gained from the experience of the Colourful themselves, either. In most cases, they set themselves apart from the predominantly urbanized and consumption-oriented lifestyle of their own parents, instead drawing inspiration from grandparents and traditional ways of living (Librová, 1994: 123–124). The Colourful admitted that it was hard to predict their children’s life paths: ‘You need to come and ask again in ten years’ (Librová, 2003: 238).

In our analysis, we differentiate the societal level from family influence (see Bengtson et al., 2002; Boehnke, 2001), focusing particularly on the latter. Drawing on sociological theories of consumption and the Bourdieusian concept of habitus, we deal with the question of how the lifestyle of the Colourful has been transmitted to another generation. We analyse interviews with the children of the Colourful (‘the Children’) and compare our interpretation to Librová’s original findings. We pay attention to the children’s reflections on their childhood and we identify lines of influence that could have contributed to the process of intergenerational reproduction of parents’ habitus.

Reproduction of environmental lifestyles in social theories – The ecological habitus

Despite the significance of the question regarding whether there is a chance for ‘voluntary simplicity’ to become a widely accepted norm or whether it is simply a marginal and ephemeral phenomenon, empirical research on this subject has been scant. Even though previous waves of simplicity (see Alexander and McLeod, 2014) had never been met in reality with a strong political or society-wide response, authors from within ‘the simplicity movement’ (Alexander and Ussher, 2012; Elgin, 1981) continue to build on the assumption that such lifestyles will continue to be disseminated. Even the degrowth movement, into which voluntary simplicity is often included (Alexander, 2015), examines the individual and society-wide levels separately, and writings devoted to grassroots change tend to have a normative tone.

Studies devoted to the reproduction of pro-environmental values and lifestyles are in a better position in this regard. Nevertheless, they usually focus on partial issues that are tested on the general population (Matthies and Wallis, 2015). As Walther and Sandlin (2013) observe, only a few other researchers have explored the intergenerational transmission of the consumer preferences of ethical consumers. The causes of this situation are not clear; one of contributing factors may be the low representation of households with children in the studies of simplifiers (Elgin, 1981; Grigsby, 2004; Schor, 1999). Nor is the question of how moderate consumption is perceived by the one’s children often addressed in sociological theories of consumption; the children’s specific situation is generally not taken into account (Cook, 2008; Martens et al., 2004). The theoretical vacuum is partially balanced by empirical studies (Pugh, 2009; Schor, 2004; Zelizer, 2002). However, the participants are not followed over the long term, and the roots of their consumption practices are considered only marginally – despite the evidence that the parental household does influence an individual’s consumer attitudes significantly (Moore-Shay and Berchmans, 1996; Olsen, 1993).

As a key sociological topic, the process of intergenerational reproduction has been studied on many levels – including values, consumer behaviour and lifestyles. Consumption derives from values in a nonlinear way (e.g. Kasper, 2009), and a significant role is played by the sociocultural milieu (Georg, 1999; Hobson, 2003; Pugh, 2009). While values tend to remain quite stable over a lifetime, lifestyle practice is rarely coherent; it makes more sense to talk about switching between particular ‘lifestyles’ (Evans and Abrahamse, 2009). Therefore, it can be expected that lifestyle transmission will be less pronounced and more influenced by social factors than in the case of values.

For a long time, the most significant theoretical contribution to the discussion on the intergenerational reproduction of environmental lifestyles has been Ronald Inglehart’s (1977) hypothesis. Inglehart asserts that postmaterial values, which are closely connected with a pro-environmental orientation, are not ‘inherited’ – they develop because of adolescent socialization into an environment of relative abundance. This hypothesis, which from the point of view of simplicity reproduction leads to pessimism, has been supported by international longitudinal surveys (e.g. Inglehart, 1990), as well as by studies that highlight the prevailing (upper-)middle-class background of simplifiers (Aarts, 1999; Elgin, 1981; Zamwel et al., 2014).

Our research is inspired by one of the streams of criticism about Inglehart’s work (e.g. De Graaf and De Graaf, 1988). We draw on Pierre Bourdieu’s stratification theory, particularly on the concept of habitus. This approach is more dynamic as it focuses on ‘family culture’, the process of its intergenerational transformation and its sources in specific social conditions. Bourdieu (1984) defines habitus as ‘sens pratique’ – as a set of rather unintentional dispositions organizing everyday practice based mainly on cultural capital (CC). Bourdieu (1984) sees lifestyle as a ‘practical metaphor’ (p. 183) of habitus – as a nonlinear process which, while being anchored in class, grows also out of imitation and one’s personal experience. Bourdieu’s understanding of consumption as based on internalized structures stands in opposition to the perspective of the homo oeconomicus making autonomous choices; it is more appropriate to talk about ‘co-consumption’ (Cook, 2008; for an environmental perspective, see Binkley, 2009; Hobson, 2003; Horton, 2003).

Unlike postmodernists such as Jean Baudrillard (1998), Bourdieu believes that differing CC continues to structure the consumption of social classes. Thanks to the combination of low economic but high CC, artists and intellectuals differ from the traditional poor because high CC involves an emphasis on self-restraint (Bourdieu, 1984).

This combination of forms of capital appears repeatedly in Bourdieusian studies devoted to environmentally friendly lifestyles (Carfagna et al., 2014; Holt, 1998; Horton, 2003) sometimes extending the original concept into an ecological habitus (or eco-habitus). Some define it broadly as ‘ecologically relevant aspects of habitus’ (Kasper, 2009: 320), while others stress the need to create a ‘feel for the game’ that ‘would generate more environmentally sound lifestyle practices’ (Haluza-DeLay, 2008: 207). Empirical work that has proven particularly helpful concerns the dynamic of social fields (Carfagna et al., 2014). Its authors outline a hopeful hypothesis: in the lives of high-CC Americans, habitus has become more ecological. The reconfiguration of high-status tastes concerns three dimensions: a new interest in materialism and the physicality of goods, a preference for the local and reverence for manual labour.

However, researchers have thus far overlooked the question of how eco-habitus is created and shaped, and how it may be reproduced. Regarding children’s consumption, theorists building on Bourdieu have dealt with its specifics only marginally. Therefore, in our study, we have turned to approaches that emphasize the construction of identity and social relations through consumption (Bauman, 2000; Dittmar, 1992). For children, this dimension seems to be particularly important. Allison Pugh (2009) claims that childhood today is undergoing a process of commodification and commercialization. In children’s ‘economy of dignity’, which is driven by the desire to belong, one’s ownership of consumer goods plays a central role. How does such a phenomenon operate in families that have based their identity on rejecting consumerist culture? Horton (2003) has shown in his research on the performance of environmental identity through materialities that ‘green lifestyles’ and ‘green distinctions’ may be based on both owning and not owning certain objects. Simplifiers, too, do not necessarily emphasize the identity-forming role of consumption (Elliott, 2013); they even express ‘conspicuous anti-consumption’ (Isenhour, 2012; Brooks, 2000; Portwood-Stacer, 2012).

Researching the children of the colourful: Method, sample and analysis

Our study builds on Hana Librová’s longitudinal research both through its qualitative method and its sample. We participated in 12 interviews with the Colourful within the third wave of her research, posing questions related to children and asking for help in approaching them. Of 28 adult children (9 men and 19 women), 7 later declined to participate; however, we received some information about them from their parents and siblings. In 2015–2016, we thus conducted 21 semi-structured, in-depth (1.5–2 hours long) interviews with the Children (4 men, 17 women), mostly in their households and in six cases accompanied by their partners.

Our sample was variable along several dimensions. The average age was 29; the youngest interviewee was 20, the oldest 44. While the older Children grew up in the unique atmosphere of post-revolutionary transformation, the younger ones have had similar formative experiences to those of their Western peers – such as the recent political and economic uncertainty or increasing social stratification (Šerek et al., 2014). When interviewing even the youngest of the Children, we encountered well thought-out attitudes and a sense of responsibility, and we were pleased by their openness. Even though almost none spent a major part of their childhood in a city, it is where many (14) work or study today. Moreover, in contrast to their parents, the Children said that city life suits them well. While parents typically preferred manual activities and some did not complete their degree, especially in the case of technical fields, most of the Children (16) study or have studied at some institution of post-secondary education. The parents’ lifestyle was often linked – as is typical for simplifiers – with giving up their original career. For the Children, their profession was more important, but they have kept an inclination towards less profitable occupations, especially towards the helping professions. However, professional continuity in the family was not rare.

In total, 11 of the Children lived in an independent household. Four of them were married; another three were engaged. Their partners were a heterogeneous group in terms of age, origin and profession – they included a plumber, an information technology (IT) specialist and a sociologist. Most of those Children who belonged to the cohorts born in the 1970s started a family early on; those who were half a generation younger were more influenced by the second demographic transition (Rabušic, 2001). Only five of the Children have become parents, even though their own parents were usually at the same age already raising one or more children.

Through its longitudinal and qualitative nature, our approach differs from the majority of studies on voluntary simplicity (e.g. Alexander and Ussher, 2012; Elgin, 1981) as well as on intergenerational reproduction of pro-environmental values (e.g. Leppänen et al., 2012; Meeusen, 2014) which, due to the use of statistical analysis, focused on a limited spectrum of variables and were prone to social desirability bias (Corral-Verdugo, 1997). Furthermore, the advantage of doing more interviews per family was that the narratives complemented each other and our longitudinal perspective offered relatively deep insight into the family background. To strengthen this particular dimension, the interviews were accompanied by elicitation videos (Lapenta, 2011) with excerpts from the 1992 and 2002 recordings that helped to refresh memories and let the interviewees compare their perspective with that of their parents. We devoted special attention to narratives related to adolescence, which is key in terms of establishing one’s postmaterial values (Inglehart, 1977) as well as consumer socialization (John, 1999). Besides recollections, we focused on various aspects of the Children’s contemporary everyday life, such as motivations or attitudes towards politics, religion and environmental issues.

The interviews were then analysed in compliance with a grounded theory–inspired, interpretative perspective (Charmaz, 2006). After beginning with individual listening and line-by-line reading of individual interviews, comparing the quotations within and across them, we moved to focused coding and triangulation of our findings in joint analytical meetings. The findings presented in the following section emerged within this process as answers to research questions on the major features of the Children’s lifestyle. Specifically, we explored how their lifestyle, according to the participants themselves, was embedded in their family background and what features of it contributed to or counteracted the intergenerational transmission of eco-habitus.

The children’s lifestyle

The main characteristic of the Colourful is their non-consumerist orientation. Is this the case for their children? Are they more like their mainstream peers (Pyšňáková and Miles, 2010) in their consumer behaviour, just as they are in the socio-demographic aspects of their lives?

At first, we must sceptically admit: were we to hypothetically keep the same criteria used in 1992, it is likely that most of the Children would not be included in the sample. They do not take as many radical steps as their parents. They buy more consumer goods and are more involved in the formal economy. Certainly, the two generations cannot be compared directly. In terms of real prices, consumption has increased by about three quarters between 1992 and 2015 (CZSO, 2016). Consumer strategies have also been influenced by new technologies and by the number of consumption alternatives. Nevertheless, the consumption of the Children differs from the usual household considerably less than their parents’ households did in the 1990s. The environmentally friendly aspects of the Children’s lives are weaker, even when compared to the parents’ current households. Over the course of 23 years, the Colourful have undergone the process of ‘becoming half-hearted’ (Librová, 2003). Under the influence of the improving economic situation or the demands of growing children, most of the Colourful have not maintained their original level of simplicity. Dishwashers and cars have been purchased, less emphasis has been placed on self-provisioning and fatigue from civic engagement has appeared.

On the other hand, the Children have embraced many of the same non-consumerist lifestyle features as their parents. The degree to which the parents’ habitus have been reproduced varies; however, in contrast to the Colourful, none of the Children have openly revolted against the family lifestyle. They have furnished their households with restraint and are not attached to fashionable styles or brands. Fond of ‘old’ things, their loyalty to certain aspects of the past can be seen also in how they relate to technologies that are rapidly becoming obsolete such as notebooks and mobile phones (comp. Horton, 2004). They avoid getting loans, even though very few of them earn more than the Czech median income. Preferring local markets or second-hand stores to shopping centres, they tend to choose pro-environmental alternatives. While only a few are vegetarians, most of them limit their meat consumption. Their consumption practices and demands are aptly put into words in Anežka’s (25, hospital nurse) description of what she possesses and what she wants:

A bike, that’s something I’d like to have new. When we ride somewhere with the kids, I am terribly slow. I look forward to that, to having a light, nice bike. Other than that, I wouldn’t say I miss having anything; I really don’t. In fact, I think I have more than I need. (My childhood …) taught me about originality in clothing – that was fun. I discovered second-hand shops, I did a lot of batik, and I made things look new. Though I didn’t have brand-name stuff, I was able to create it in my own way. This was much better for me. It seemed to me that in the scarcity I could find my own way that I came to enjoy. One was in a way original.

Besides fashion, the automobile and the television are two distinctive materialities tightly linked to eco-habitus (Horton, 2003; Shaw and Newholm, 2002: 176–177). In the Children’s households, television is usually absent, or it is watched only occasionally. A similar attitude is held towards automobiles. Almost half of the Children either do not own a car or have purchased one after years of living car-free. And even the car owners mostly prefer bicycle or public transportation to commute or go shopping. The particular attitude of the people who are in their 20s and 30s today may play a role here. Studies from Western Europe and the United States indicate that for this generation, the car is much less of a status symbol; they prefer information technologies (Dutzik et al., 2014). According to some surveys, this phenomenon has spread to the Czech Republic as well (TNS, 2016).

Besides similarities with the Colourful, the Children differ in some environmentally relevant aspects, such as attachment to place. The Children move more often, and they normally commute between several places due to their studies or work. As a consequence, and also due to living mostly in cities, the Children do not engage in self-provisioning as much as their parents did. While they do enjoy gardening, it is primarily a free-time activity. In their free time, the Children engage also in other activities appreciated within the environmental movement (Horton, 2003) – they practise crafts, create art and go hiking or biking. Some are attracted to spending their vacations abroad, but, characteristically, they do not like going ‘at the speed of the crowd’ as fittingly expressed by Eliška (20, scenography student and artisan), who enjoys travelling without the help of professional agencies.

Cindy Isenhour (2012) has emphasized the civic dimension of voluntary simplicity. The Colourful are certainly not escapists, either – they stand out by their engagement in local politics and civic groups (comp. Grigsby, 2004; Maniates, 2002; Zamwel et al., 2014). For the Children, these tendencies seem less typical. This reticence may have been caused both by the parents’ disillusionment and by the growing scepticism regarding civic engagement in Czech society (Hadler and Wohlkönig, 2012). Nevertheless, an indicator of the Children’s pro-environmental inclinations manifests in frequent voting for the Green Party.

Similar to the Colourful and some Western simplifiers (Grigsby, 2004; Maniates, 2002; Schor, 1999), the Children do not mention political or environmental motivations for their behaviour. While expressing concerns about environmental problems, they distance themselves from environmental movements (comp. Aarts, 1999). They do not project a ‘green identity’ by exhibiting certain distinctions or cultural ‘labels’ (Horton, 2003), nor do they see their consumption as an expression of some ‘subpolitics’ (Zamwel et al., 2014). Counterbalancing the Children’s relative half-heartedness with respect to global issues is their creative engagement at the local level (Zamwel et al., 2014), such as renovating religious buildings or organizing free-time activities.

The Children’s lifestyles seem to correspond to the perspective that views voluntary simplicity as behaviour motivated primarily by virtue ethics (Librová et al., 2016; Shaw and Newholm, 2002). This type of motivation strives for personal integrity and is based on the question ‘What kind of person do I want to be?’ (Sandler and Cafaro, 2005). The expressed sense of responsibility also points towards deontology (O’Neill et al., 2008). The Children believe that what they do is meaningful regardless of the result and consider their behaviour, truly habitually, as a matter of course, as put by Štěpán (26, architecture student):

LG: Does your life have any ecological aspects? Š: It’s like it probably does, but it’s not that I’d somehow focus on that. It is a value, but kind of a subconscious one. It is important, of course; that goes without saying.

Therefore, our findings confront the perspective of simplifiers as part of a teleologically oriented political movement (Alexander and Ussher, 2012; Zamwel et al., 2014). The Children do not express intentional self-limitation (Lorenzen, 2012; Shepherd, 2002) or strict differentiation from common consumerism (Aarts, 1999).

Our research resonates with that of authors such as Duane Elgin (1981), for whom voluntary simplicity is not rooted in sacrifice or service, but rather increases satisfaction with one’s own life, which is – to quote the subtitle of Elgin’s book – ‘outwardly simple, inwardly rich’. In the Children’s lives, virtue ethics is manifested mainly in the same mode of behaviour as in the case of their parents, which is called Lebenskunst or ars vivendi (Librová and Pelikán, 2016; Schmid, 1998). It relies substantially on intuition and on – broadly understood – aesthetic judgement, and it is characterized by benevolence towards others (comp. Frasz, 2005). The reasons mentioned by Barbora (24), who combines studies of art and fashion, for saving water and energy are revealing: ‘I love running water. (…) And it kills me when drinking water is used to flush the toilet’. Similarly, the Children’s opposition to shopping is not based on rational arguments; it is ‘a nuisance’ or they find it ‘boring’. It may be possible to label the Children’s attitude ‘true hedonism’ (we find this term more appropriate than Kate Soper’s (2008) ‘alternative hedonism’ as classic hedonism stresses control over one’s pleasures, too). What they consider important is free time (comp. Grigsby, 2004). While they currently do not want to give up their skilled work, many of them are already open to downshifting and they are thinking about living in the countryside.

Lines of influence in the process of habitus reproduction

The similarities and differences between the Colourful and their children led us to the more complex question concerning which features of their lifestyle and family environment have contributed to the relative success of the reproduction of the parents’ habitus and to individual variations regarding this process among siblings.

First, the sources of influence from outside one’s family, such as peers or the media, appeared in the interviews only rarely. Like their parents, the Children did not attribute significant influence to school – two families practised homeschooling – or to extracurricular activities, with the exception of church and Scout-like organizations. The only significant non-familial influence was that of the Children’s partners, with some of them having significant pro-environmental attitudes. The analysis of the interviews revealed seven major lines of influence along which the reproduction of the habitus emerged.

Even though many of the families, especially in the 1990s, lived in conditions of material scarcity, the interviews revealed mostly positive reflections on a non-affluent childhood. The Children, and particularly those who saw their lifestyle as similar to their parents, described it as content. Austerity was critically mentioned, especially in poor families, such as Daniela’s (38, sociologist, homemaker at present). Like some others, she thematized the issue of clothing: ‘My mother-in-law always sews something and exclaims: “This is great, no one else is wearing this”. And I say: “I want what everybody else is wearing”’. However, no one interpreted austerity as a stigma. The concerns expressed by the parents were not confirmed: they did not make their children suffer in their peer groups (comp. Pugh, 2009).

The interview with Marie (30, art historian involved – like her mother – in regional development and cultural activities) revealed that modesty was sometimes associated with perceived difference and, as in Anežka's case, connected to creativity. However, during adolescence, Marie was able to turn her difference into an advantage:

Since we really are a strange family, I’ve always had a need to be different. I would always read strange books and wear strange clothes. I’ve been a hipster since I was born. I always had old things because we got hand-me-downs. (…) In a way I guess I liked that. Plus, I of course could see some value in that.

This appreciation of parents’ values and understanding of their decision to live in accordance with them could have been facilitated (comp. Meeusen, 2014) by open discussion over particular life situations. In Marie’s quotation, the lifestyle difference was portrayed positively, as an expression of individuality and even as part of ‘strategies of distinction’ (Bourdieu, 1984). These distinctions were sometimes encouraged by the parents’ affiliation to the anti-Communist cultural underground.

Family values were in some cases tightly knit with religious beliefs. Most of the Colourful were religious, but only some of them saw themselves as part of some church. In accordance with sources suggesting that religion is reproduced relatively successfully (Bengtson, 2013), the Children have maintained a warm attitude towards Christianity – which is certainly not typical of Czech society, where after an increase in the early 1990s, membership in churches has dropped to only about a third of the population, the lowest percentage in Europe (Hamplová and Nešpor, 2009). Nevertheless, they preferred individualized forms of spirituality. Especially in Protestant families, in which the simple lifestyle is tied to their emphasis on self-limitation and the morality of duty (Weber, 1921), lifestyle and religious continuity seemed to be intertwined.

Whether based on religious beliefs or not, none of the Children took a strong stance against the upbringing they had. Perhaps, the most typical feature of such upbringing was freedom. Tereza (24, shop assistant and national park guide), whose family is part of the Euro-Indians’ subculture (see Jehlička, 2008) openly declared her appreciation of her parent’s liberal attitude:

It wasn’t like anyone would be holding our hand. We played by ourselves. (…) We would be gone all day. When we were six, we would go to the woods and come back in the evening. I’d like to push through this kind of upbringing in my own family as well.

Freedom was tied to responsibility from an early age – whether it was taking care of younger siblings or helping in the house and on the farm. The Colourful also did not emphasize upward social mobility and did not interfere with the Children’s choices of partners or professions. The parents’ benevolent approach towards passing on their ‘voluntary simplicity’ was nicely illustrated also by the fact that the Children were not pushed to read Hana Librová’s books.

Even though a majority of the Colourful did not assign a significant role to formal education, Marie’s remark on reading ‘strange books’ points to an important attribute of the family milieu: signs of higher cultural capital. As Librová (1994) observed, even those without a degree ‘had an educational horizon in many ways broader than the usual average of college graduates’ (p. 100). The Colourful studied in an extracurricular fashion and their families were involved in art, music and much reading. The generally aesthetic attitude representing the Lebenskunst mode could also be regarded as a sign of high CC. Furthermore, the Children of high-CC parents seemed to have adopted their habitus more successfully than those with lower CC.

It is the atmosphere within the family that seemed to be the key factor for the heterogeneity within the sample. About half of the Children experienced conflicts between the parents – some ending in divorce. Those who have reproduced the modest lifestyle to a lesser extent (and most of those who refused to participate) came from these conflict-ridden families. This finding corresponds with studies arguing that patterns of consumption reflect parent–child relationships, and that children from fragmented families exhibit higher levels of consumerism (Moore-Shay and Berchmans, 1996; Rindfleisch et al., 1997).

Besides the differences among families, siblings within one family varied in the way they followed the parental habitus. How is it that one family model has been reproduced in such diverse ways? In contrast to the interviewees of Walther and Sandlin (2013), who explain their siblings’ different life paths as caused by the ‘consumer society’, the Colourful themselves – just like the Children – usually interpreted the differences psychologically. However, in 2002, they suggested the hypothesis that those who could lean on their older siblings coped with their ‘strangeness’ better. Different experiences are related to the Children’s birth order in other ways, too. The older ones were sometimes born in the family’s former place of residence. Lenka (34, university teacher in aesthetics; first of three children raised in an artistic family) described, how moving involved a break in her social relations:

Here, we were still normal; there we were strange. (In the city, my parents …) associated with the kind of people who were like them. Then in the Highlands, there wasn’t anyone like that. (…) I remember how I would always look forward to the weekend because someone from Brno would be coming.

Almost without exception, older Children did not intend to leave the city and were more critical towards their parents’ lifestyle. As far as we can conclude based on our data, their younger siblings have reproduced their parents’ lifestyle more strongly.

Discussion and conclusion

The high demands that an environmentally friendly lifestyle places on the individual have been pointed out by numerous sociological studies (Hobson, 2003; Horton, 2003; Shepherd, 2002); Librová (2008) has analysed the terminological paradox – the ‘voluntarily simple’ life is usually not simple at all. For groups in which such lifestyle is practised intensively (e.g. communities and subcultures), it is common to live under formalized as well as unspoken norms; to be an environmentalist requires full commitment. Many people cannot cope with these high demands. Frequently, if not predictably, the effort results in a ‘feeling of being trapped’ (Shepherd, 2002: 146), frustration and ‘green fatigue’ (Librová and Pelikán, 2016).

The form of environmentally friendly lifestyle that the Colourful and their children have embraced cannot claim a thorough application of pro-environmental elements. Their lifestyle opposes views on voluntary simplicity as a political movement, composed of individuals making deliberate choices (Alexander and Ussher, 2012; Zamwel et al., 2014). Based on virtue ethics of the Lebenskunst mode, it is intuitive, benevolent, without a distinct green identity, and it benefits nature without direct purpose. However, it is persistent (Librová et al., 2016), and, as shown by our research, also attractive for descendants.

Our findings refute claims about the diminishing role of family socialization (e.g. Trommsdorff and Nauck, 2006), and instead support studies that, similarly to Bourdieu, see parental modelling as the primary actor in the reproduction of habitus (Bengtson et al., 2002; Matthies and Wallis, 2015; Walther and Sandlin, 2013). At the same time, it must be admitted that while the Children have continued in the direction of their parents, the pro-environmental features of their consumption have grown weaker – they express continuity in verbal appreciation rather than in everyday life.

Nevertheless, relatively successful reproduction of the habitus of the Colourful must be viewed with a measure of scepticism. We cannot exclude the possibility that our findings have been biased because of those who declined to be interviewed. Even though indirectly collected information suggests that they do not significantly differ from the rest, their decision may have been influenced by disagreement with their parents’ lifestyle. Especially, there was notably less willingness among men to participate, which affected the gender balance of the sample – and the hypothesis suggesting a more successful social reproduction in the case of women finds some support here (Boehnke, 2001; Leppänen et al., 2012). Moreover, the Children’s current lifestyles may undergo transformation. Starting a family affects – as their parents had also learned – consumption behaviour significantly (Pugh, 2009). On the other hand, having children can also motivate simplifying (Kennedy et al., 2013).

We have shed some light on the question of how ecological habitus might be transmitted across generations and why this occurs in diverse ways. For the Children, we have identified seven lines of influence: positive reflections on a non-affluent childhood, awareness of the values behind simplicity, a liberal model of upbringing, the higher CC of the families, the family atmosphere, religiosity and diverse experiences among siblings related to their birth order.

Our findings question Ronald Inglehart’s structural presupposition that environmentally friendly lifestyles develop within an environment of material affluence. First, they dispute this presupposition at the societal level. While such lifestyles may certainly be considered reactions against Western overindulgence, our research supports studies pointing out that their sources are wider: environmental concerns have become globalized (Marquart-Pyatt, 2012) and more sustainable behaviour has been developing also in environments that are not very rich in economic capital (Martínez-Alier, 1995), including post-socialist countries (Burgiel et al., 2015; Kraleva, 2017; Librová, 1994; Zaritska, 2015). Second, our findings dispute Inglehart’s (and some simplicity authors’) view concerning the family level. Parents’ relative poverty did not lead to a consumerist orientation among their children. Thus, our research dovetails with that of authors pointing to the crucial role of CC in the formation of environmentally friendly lifestyles (Aarts, 1999; Carfagna et al., 2014; Elgin, 1981; Elliott, 2013). The Children can be seen as having higher CC not only because of their education and family origin but also because of certain features of their habitus (Bourdieu, 1984; Carfagna et al., 2014; Holt, 1998) – their inclination towards the local and ‘true materialism’ (Schor, 2010), as well as their appreciation of manual labour. Another characteristic of CC is a distinctive aesthetic stance and a creative approach towards consumption, accompanying the Lebenskunst lifestyle mode.

Overall, our study calls into question the assumption that environmentally friendly attitudes are derived from socio-economic characteristics. While gender, age or education does play a role, the Children’s habitus does not depend on them directly. More important in this respect are the subjective meanings associated with parents’ households and with growing up. In many ways, our conclusions resonate with those of Mary Grigsby (2004: 57). She sees as essential in the embrace of voluntary simplicity the fact that her interviewees experienced austerity or difference as something that is not to be feared.

In our analysis, we have applied mainly a Bourdieusian perspective. However, the topic invites other points of view. For instance, many authors emphasize the individualistic nature of voluntary simplicity (Connolly and Prothero, 2008; Grigsby, 2004; Maniates, 2002; Zamwel et al., 2014). Librová (2010) points out that in addition to the accented negative aspects of individualization (Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, 2002), there are also aspects favourable for the environment. Voluntary simplicity may be regarded as an expression of qualitative individualization (Librová, 2010: 132; Simmel, 1922: 541–543), which involves intentional distancing from the rest of society and an emphasis on self-actualization. These elements can be seen in the Children’s distinctive taste, their consumer choices or their spirituality.

The Children’s lifestyle, viewed as a kind of self-cultivation based on virtue ethics, is accompanied also by a certain elite distinction (Schmidt, 1993). This distinction is habitualized, seen as part of a natural process, rising from faithfulness to one’s values and sensitivity linked to high CC. We have not observed a conspicuous distinctiveness at the level of consumption; rather, we see a subconscious emphasis on life satisfaction derived from other than material dimensions. The Children are aware, and sometimes even proud, of their difference.

We have primarily dealt with the process of habitus reproduction within the family. However, it must be taken into account that (eco-)habitus develops within a wider social field (Bourdieu, 1984; Carfagna et al., 2014; Haluza-DeLay, 2008). Some studies on Western societies indicate that environmentally friendly social norms have been gaining influence (Bowerman, 2014; Carfagna et al., 2014; Elliott, 2013; Isenhour, 2012). Kees Schmidt (1993) has described a ‘civilization process’ leading towards ‘ecologization’. Material paucity and pro-environmental behaviour has evolved as a prestigious activity among elites (Aarts, 1999; Holt, 1998), significantly among the creative professions (Binkley, 2009; Brooks, 2000). Documentaries about radical ecologization have grown in popularity (Crocker, 2014; Webster, 2008); environmental topics have been taken over by consumerist culture and have penetrated into lifestyle magazines (Thomas, 2009). As Elgin (2010) put it in the preface to the latest edition of his Voluntary Simplicity, in the course of the four decades since the book’s first appearance, there has been a ‘seismic shift in public interest’ (p. 25) and ‘simplicity has moved from the margins of society to the mainstream’ (p. 26).

Is it possible that structural ecologization of habitus has been taking place in Czech society as well? While today’s situation may be less favourable for bold decisions (Pelikán and Librová, 2015), it may provide an even more suitable environment for the establishment and reproduction of eco-habitus than was the case in the early 1990s, when the Colourful represented rather an exotic phenomenon. Since that time, Czech society has undergone a substantial value diversification, many aspects of environmental lifestyles have become part of the (middle-class) mainstream and social groups that can serve as a reference point for an environmentally oriented individual have emerged (a more comprehensive picture of this societal transformation is part of our research dealing with contemporary Czech simplifiers (Kala et al., 2017)). These developments may have contributed to the Children’s preference for socially heterogeneous cities.

The relatively successful intergenerational reproduction of the Colourful’s habitus and signs of the ecologization of high-status tastes invite optimism in respect to the dissemination of environmentally friendly lifestyles. The openness of the Children to the social atmosphere can be viewed positively as well. From the point of view of society as a whole, could they be actually a more promising phenomenon than the Colourful looking back into the past?

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

Primarily, we would like to thank Hana Librová for inviting us to participate in her longitudinal study and for her insightful comments. We also thank all the interviewees for their warm welcome and focused responses. Furthermore, we gratefully acknowledge the help from Kateřina Majerová, Tereza Lehečková, Jan Blažek, Jakub Macek, Bernadette Nadya Jaworsky and Kateřina Prajznerová.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This article is part of the “Environmentally-Friendly Lifestyle in the March of Time” project (GA15-05552S) funded by the Czech Science Foundation.

Author Biographies

Vojtěch Pelikán is a doctoral candidate in Environmental Humanities at Masaryk University. His research interests include environmental anthropology, environmentally friendly lifestyles and environmental movements.

Lucie Galčanová is a researcher in the Office for Population Research at Masaryk University. Her research interests include housing and urban studies with focus on home and domesticity, and cultural and spatial aspects of population ageing.

Lukáš Kala is a sociologist working in the fields of the sociology of lifestyles and rural sociology. His research focuses mainly on the environmental aspects of lifestyles. His previous publications challenge the stereotype that the lifestyle of people who live single is environmentally unfriendly.

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